Running a French gite or gite business in France

Next question is, what is it really like to run a gite business. How do you spend your time. Unfortunately it's not all sunshine and aperitifs.

Key tasks that will occupy your time include:

Ongoing repairs and maintenance

You will need to perform a reasonable amount of repairs and maintenance on the properties when they are empty. Properties being rented out for part of the year seem to suffer more wear and tear than 'normal' properties do in a year. Running a gite business that may include several rental properties can involve a reasonable amount of work!

People will have treated the appliances more roughly than you would, and forgotten to put salt tablets in the dishwasher. Little leaks and loose sockets will need repairing, tiles re-grouting, paint retouching and so on. This can be significant if you have several properties. We try and 'live' in each property for a couple of days, as the best way of finding all the little problems - missing cutlery, blocked sinks, mice in the attic and so on that don't always show up from a quick investigation.

Swimming pool problems are reasonably common - chemical imbalances or problems with the pump for example. These need immediate attention.

Grass cutting and gardening play a large role in running gites!

Marketing your properties

To increase your occupancy rate from 'mediocre' to 'good' takes a lot of research, monitoring competitors, assessing listing sites and so on. This is covered in the 'marketing' section and 'factsheet' section. To get your website to perform well in search engines takes a great deal of research and effort

To get you started, you might like to add your site to the gites and villas in France section at francethisway.com - see here to advertise a gite.

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